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Unconventional director Christopher Alden says he doesn’t care if changes he makes to opera’s old favourites ruffle a few feathers.

“I couldn’t do something straight if my life depended on it,” laughs Alden as he prepares Die Fledermaus for its Oct. 4 opening at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Die Fledermaus is one of the world’s most popular operettas (words are spoken as well as sung and there’s a lighter tone), but audiences should be prepared for a different Vienna than that of “waltz king” Johann Strauss, who wrote the operetta in 1874. Men in garters and nylons, women wearing men’s clothes, animal costumes and masks, bats and bare skin are just some of the visual treats in the Canadian Opera Company production.

“The kind of art that interests me is personal, with a strong point of view, and goes out on a limb and maybe is provocative and upsets some people who are more traditional,” says Alden, when asked if he’s afraid of turning off an audience with an “out there” interpretation.

“That’s when I start to connect to art. That’s the energy and attitude I try to bring to everything I do.”

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The COC’s Fledermaus has been moved to the early 20th century while the locale stays the same.

This is when Sigmund Freud and his dream analysis became popular, and there are references to dreams, hypnotism (the stage is dominated by a giant swinging clock) and sex.

They worked together to create a sophisticated, sexy tale that unfolds as if in a dream. The sets and costumes are all integral parts of the storytelling in this operetta.

The first act centres around a troubled marriage, with the action taking place on a giant bed. Gabriel von Eisenstein is a philanderer and his wife, Rosalinde, the unhappy spouse in this bourgeois arrangement.

Moyer says the black, white and grey colour scheme for the Eisenstein household shows it to be a place “of repression.”

Bats, a boyfriend and a Freud figure emerge from Rosalinde’s dreams.

The action then moves to an eye-popping costume ball. Rosalinde is taken there by coachmen, with giant birds’ heads covering their skulls.

(The COC found a 1906 Brewster Brougham with an Amish carriage restorer in Ohio. The COC’s props department finished the restoration.)

Dressed all in black, the disguised Rosalinde arrives at the party bringing a sense of foreboding, says Moyer, adding, “It’s almost like a funeral carriage.”

The costumes are sexy, frightening and other-worldly — after all, the action occurs after a man has a prank played on him while wearing a bat costume.

Hoffman has men dressed as women and women dressed as men and bats, all scantily clad. There are garters, whips, masks and even handcuffs.

She assures there is no nudity in the piece in spite of what appears to be an exposed breast on a bat girl.

“The girl is covered from throat to toes in sequins. It’s just a costume,” says Hoffman, who adds she’s “astonished” at the numerous questions she has fielded on this issue.

But she concedes, the costumes “are meant to be sexy.”

“We really felt we wanted to look at Rosalinde, her subconscious, her fantasies,” says Hoffman. “It is about repressed desires that are allowed to surface at the Orlofsky party.

“The tone we tried to get for the party is that it is not dangerous. The sexiness is done in good fun and a warm spirit. It’s a place to celebrate.”

After the police shut the party down, everyone returns “to their bourgeois existence, jobs and responsibilities,” says Hoffman.

Alden says he doesn’t mind “throwing cold water” on an audience to make them sit up and take notice. Audiences, as a result of exposure to TV and pop culture, expect more visual entertainment, says Alden.

He and his twin brother, David Alden, also a top director raised in a theatrical New York family, are both part of the COC’s 2012/2013 season.

Christopher returns to direct Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito in February while David will direct Donizetti’s Lucia diLammermoor in April and May.

The Canadian Opera Company’s Die Fledermaus is at the Four Seasons Centre Oct. 4 to Nov. 3. See www.coc.ca for details.

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